CatholicHighSchools

Every Catholic High School in America

U.S. Catholic High Schools by State‎

A

C

D

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

O

P

R

S

T

U

V

W

Jesuit High Schools

Arizona

California

Colorado

Connecticut

District of Columbia

Florida

Georgia

Illinois

St. Ignatius, Chicago

Indiana

Louisiana

Main

Maryland

Loyola Blakefield

Massachusetts

Michigan

Minnesota

Cristo Rey, Minneapolis

Missouri

Nebraska

New Jersey

New York

Regis, New York

Ohio

Oregon

St. Ignatius; Strake, Houston

Pennsylvania

Puerto Rico

South Dakota

Texas

Washington

Seattle Prep

Wisconsin

U.S. Catholic High Schools PDFDownload

Catholic Education

The Catholic Church runs the largest network of private schools in the United States. Total Catholic elementary/middle and high school enrollment for the 2016-2017 academic year is 1,878,824.  

  • Elementary/middle schools: 5,224 schools educating 1,309,429 students.
  • High schools: 1,205 schools educating 569,395 students.
  • 6,429 total Catholic (elementary/middle and high) schools in the United States.

Other Religious Education

  • 1,739 Catholic schools had waiting lists for admission.  
  • Non-Catholic enrollment was 345,327 or 18.4% of the total enrollment.
  • 30% of all Catholic high schools are single gender and 1.4% of all Catholic elementary schools are single gender.
  • 99.3% of Catholic secondary school students graduate and 85.2% go on to four-year colleges, compared to 44% of public school graduates who go on to a four-year college.  
  • Dioceses with the largest enrollments are: Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, St. Louis, Boston and New Orleans.
  • 20 new Catholic schools opened and 96 schools closed or consolidated.

Student Race and Ethnicity

  • 73.3% or 1,377,782 students enrolled in Catholic elementary/middle and secondary schools were Caucasian or white.
  • 5.5% or 102,901 students enrolled in Catholic elementary/middle and secondary schools were Asian.
  • 7.8% or 146,480 students enrolled in Catholic elementary/middle and secondary schools were African American.
  • 6% or 112,767 students enrolled in Catholic elementary/middle and secondary schools were multiracial.     
  • 16.8% or 315,610 students enrolled in Catholic elementary/middle and secondary schools were Hispanic/Latino.      

Tuition and Costs

  • Based on the average public school cost of $11,066 per student, Catholic schools provide more than 20 billion dollars a year savings for U.S. taxpayers.
  • Tuition fees paid by families constitute a portion of the actual per pupil expenses.
  • The average per pupil tuition in parish elementary schools is $4,400, which is approximately 74.7% of actual costs per pupil of $5,887.
  • About 91% of elementary schools provide some form of tuition assistance.  
  • The secondary school mean freshman tuition is $9,840, which is about 70.6% of actual costs per pupil of $13,939.
  • About 85% of secondary schools provide some form of tuition assistance.
  • The difference between the per pupil cost and the tuition charged is obtained in many ways, primarily through direct subsidy from parish, diocesan or religious congregation resources and from multi-faceted development programs and fundraising activities.

Staffing of Catholic Schools

  • There are 152,883 total full time equivalent teaching staff in Catholic elementary/middle and secondary schools. The student/teacher ratio is 12:1.
  • 2.6% Religious/Clergy:
    2,470 or 1.7% Sisters
    784 or 0.5% Clergy
    743 or 0.5% Brothers
     
  • 97.4% Lay:
    115,110 or 75.3% female lay
    33,776 or 22% male lay
     
  • The larger the number of Latino parishioners, the less likely that community had a shared responsibility for a parish school, according to a 2014 Boston College study.
  • Catholic schools are less available in areas where the Catholic population has grown the most, mostly due to Hispanics, in the South and the West.
  • Major initiatives by bishops, superintendents, pastors and principals to provide consistent cultural competency training and financial investments have produced positive results.  
  • The percentage of Latino children enrolled in Catholic schools in the United States has grown from 12.8% to 16% over the last five years.

More information is available at the National Catholic Education Association at www.ncea.org. and https://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/catholic-education/

Catholic Colleges and Universities 

(As of 2015)

  • There are 233 Catholic colleges and universities educating more than 802,093 students.  
  • About 60% of undergraduate students at Catholic colleges and universities self-identify as Catholic.
  • There are 10 Catholic two-year colleges with more than 5,100 students enrolled. The median enrollment is 302.
  • The first Catholic higher education institution in the United States was Georgetown University in Washington DC, founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1789.
  • The newest Catholic institution is Holy Spirit College in Atlanta, founded in 2010.
  • Nearly 12.5% of the world’s Catholic colleges and universities are located in the United States.
  • There are approximately 1,861 Catholic colleges and universities worldwide.
  • Source: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops